How AI API Pricing Is Calculated
An AI API cost calculator helps developers and teams estimate expenses before deploying LLM-powered apps. Most AI APIs charge based on tokens, which represent fragments of words or symbols. Pricing depends on how many tokens you send (input tokens) and how many tokens the model generates (output tokens).
Understanding Token-Based Billing
Each request consumes tokens from the prompt and model output. Providers typically charge separate rates for input and output tokens. This calculator converts your text into estimated input tokens and applies your output token prediction to compute total usage cost.
How to Use the AI API Cost Calculator
Enter your prompt text, estimated output length, token pricing, and monthly request volume. The calculator returns:
- Estimated input tokens
- Total token usage per request
- Cost per individual API call
- Project monthly spending based on request volume
Reducing AI API Costs
- Shorten prompts by removing redundant context
- Use system prompts instead of long repeating text
- Limit output token maximums where possible
- Use embeddings for search instead of repeated full prompts
Well-optimized prompts and batching strategies can significantly reduce your overall AI API spending.
FAQ
AI API Pricing & Token Usage FAQ
Common questions about how token costs and API billing work.
It computes total tokens from input and output estimates, applies your selected per-million-token pricing, and returns per-request and monthly usage costs.
Yes. You can enter any cost per million tokens to match OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Cohere, or custom deployments.
Yes. You can set different rates for input tokens and output tokens, matching real provider pricing models.
Most APIs provide exact token counts after processing, but this calculator provides a reliable estimate for budgeting and planning.
Yes. The tool allows you to estimate cost per request, daily volume, monthly volume, or dataset-scale usage.
No. All calculations are performed locally in your browser.
Yes. Set the output token rate to zero and enter only input token pricing to calculate embedding costs.
Yes. Just enter an approximate output token count.
Yes. More text means more tokens, which increases the total price.
Yes. It is model-agnostic and works with any token-based billing system.